Blog: Seven Pillars of an Effective Church – Part 5

Matthew 4:23,24(KJV)

23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

This is absolutely one of the most neglected areas of contemporary Christian ministry. It is astounding the way healing and deliverance has been, at best, relegated to only certain denominations.

Jesus, upon returning from the wilderness, begin to preach and teach. Most Christians don’t have a problem with that. At the same time, He was constantly healing the people of all kinds of sickness and casting out demons from them. Much sickness(not all) and infirmity is related to unclean spirits. That is why healing and deliverance go hand in hand. Jesus deals with mental illness as well as palsy. This approach to healing people, regardless of their ailment or the source of that ailment, should mark the Christian church.

The word ‘healing’ there is Strong’s 2323, therapeuó. And it means reversing a physical condition to restore a person having an illness (disease, infirmity). The erroneous view that the Lord did this just because He was Jesus, and that we as His followers cannot do it, is debunked and addressed by these scriptures:

Acts 5:12-16(KJV)

12 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.13 And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)15 Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

Acts 19:11-13(KJV)

11 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:12 So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

So other Apostles wrought the same miracles that Jesus did. If we are not walking in that kind of supernatural power in today’s church, it is because we have no faith for it. This teaching must be reinstated and walked in, and it will have the same effect in today’s society as it did in Jesus’ day.